Women Who Run With The Wolves By Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

After reading several stories in Women Who Run with the Wolves by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, I found two stories that resonated with me most: “The Ugly Duckling” and “Sealskin, Soulskin.” The former of the two stories is based on Hans Christian Anderson’s tale of the same name and tells of a homely little bird born to a family of ducks. The ugly duckling suffers much verbal and physical abuse from all of the other ducks. His mother defends him at first, but she eventually grows tired of his presence, which causes the ugly duckling to run away. He first wanders to a marsh. Then he finds a hovel with an old woman, her cat, and her hen, but the animals tease the ugly duckling mercilessly; again, he sets off on his own. He sees a flock of migrating …show more content…
According to Estés (1996), “Many fairy tales and myths center around the theme of the outcast. In such tales, the central figure is tortured by events outside her venue, often due to a poignant oversight” (p. 183). Take Disney’s The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride for example. Although Kovu grew up outside of the Pride Lands, he seeks acceptance from Simba and the other lions. Eventually, Simba brands Kovu an outcast by exclaiming, “When you first came here you asked for judgment. And I pass it now! Exile!” (The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride, 1998) Viewers then watch as the animals in Pride Rock force Kovu to leave through song. In this moment, Kovu becomes the ugly duckling. However, the woman in “Sealskin, Soulskin” never experiences rejection and exile from her kind. While she feels as though she has no choice but to stay on land, the other Selkies never banish her from their world. They never label her an outcast and reject her as a Selkie. This is where the two stories differ. Additionally, “Sealskin, Soulskin” explores the consequences of staying overlong. In the story, the woman stays on land for too long, which causes her to experience physical deformities. After she returns home for seven days and seven nights, she regains her beauty. The woman suffers both physically and emotionally as a result of staying in a place in which she does not belong. She loses a part of herself, a part of her soul, but finds it again upon returning home. On the contrary, the ugly duckling does not stay in one place for too long, and he does not initially know the place in which he belongs. Instead of remaining in one place for too long, he searches many places for his